The school is being built from the ground up by Paul Carrese, who came to Arizona to January from the Air Force Academy where he was a political science professor.

The school -- which now offers four classes, plans to expand to seven by January and hopes to offer a major next year -- includes two think tanks that operate with private grants from the Charles Koch Foundation: the Center for Political Thought and Leadership and the Center for the Study of Economic Liberty.

While those think tanks clearly have a mission to push a certain perspective, Carrese assured me that the school itself will present a range of views from an academic rather than political viewpoint.

It’ll clearly have support from our leaders, who not only are committing $3 million annually but this year threw in that extra $1 million.

“I had no idea it was coming and there was no specific explanation for it beyond the funds were to go to the school,” Carrese told me. “But the university president thought we should make a particular effort to use the funds in a way that would be good for the university community and the broader community.”

As a result the school is funding a series of lectures and conferences on “free speech and intellectual diversity” and it’s buying rare books.

The first of those books, a first edition copy of The Federalist, was put on public display last week in connection with a panel discussion entitled “Burr, Hamilton and the Drama of America’s Founding.”

It’ll also be on display at Gammage during next year’s run of the musical Hamilton.

Carrese wouldn't say what the book cost, only that he plans to spend $500,000 in total. He's now on the hunt for early editions of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” and an autographed copy of “Why We Can’t Wait,” by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He's also looking for the earliest reprint he can find of George Washington’s Farewell Address.

Carrese calls the acquisitions “extraordinary opportunities” for ASU, which now joins about 100 universities and libraries in possessing a first edition of The Federalist from 1788.

“It’s the sort of thing that other very prestigious universities and institutions do, collect first editions or rare editions of these sorts of books,” he explained. “So they’re objects of research in the narrow sense and then in the broader sense, they’re objects of education and inspiration.”